Archive for November, 2012

  • November 21, 2012

    Founder Institute Colombia sigue aportando al ecosistema

    Founder Institute ColombiaPara los lectores de mi blog, es conocido la historia del Founder Institute en Colombia.  El Founder Institute es una incubadora ¨pre-idea¨para fundadores de emprendimientos digitales.  Aunque fue creada en Silicon Valley, California por Adeo Ressi y aunque hay mentores de allá, se compone mas que todo por emprendedores, mentores y aliados Colombianos.  Ahora, dos empresas graduadas del programa en Bogotá y en Medellin han sido calificadas como emprendimientos viables por Innpulsa Colombia y recibirán apoyo financiera de más de Col $300M para fortificar su producto y posicionamiento en el mercado, entre otras cosas.

    Se trata de Androcial de Bogotá, compañía enfocada en automatizar los procesos detrás de la ejecución de campañas digitales a través de infuenciadores.  Dicha empresa, junto con su producto WomyAds, ya cuenta con una red de 455 influenciadores con un alcance de 650.000 personas en 6 países de América Latina con varios clientes. Se trata también de La Bonoteca (Tomas Posada), compañía que ofrece una plataforma para ejecutar campañas de bonos a través de los teléfonos inteligentes. Su aplicación para iPhone ha sido descargada por más de 1600 usuarios y la empresa cuenta con 85 negocios locales probando la aplicación para enviar sus bonos a potenciales clientes.

    Los emprendedores de estas empresas son graduados del Founder Institute 2012 los cuales se graduaron hace apenas unos meses del programa.  Ya los graduados del programa en 2012 que han conseguido inversión adicional incluye Eric Brimen de Comparamejor, Juan Ayala de Asegurate Facil gracias a inversionistas angel y Giovanni Beltran y David Roncancio (este del 2012) CodeTag asi como Carlos Rozo y Andres Cifuentes de Thotz.  Estos últimos forman parte de Wayra Colombia, una excelente iniciativa que apoya a los startups tambien con inversión.

    Es bastante satisfactorio ver el impacto que puede tener un programa como el de Founder Institute en tan solo dos años y cuando me refiero al “programa” me refiero de igual forma a la red increíble de mentores locales que aportaron su tiempo y esfuerzo asi como los aliados estratégicos como CO Internet y Ruta N que han creído en esta iniciativa y las personas que la componen (gracias también a Microsoft por su apoyo en proveer un lugar donde ejecutar la iniciativa en Bogota).

    Esto es increíblemente satisfactorio para mi personalmente ya que mi meta es ayudar a impulsar el ecosistema de startups Colombiano a través de iniciativas donde personas (mentores) y organizaciones (aliados/patrocinadores) puedan conseguir una plataforma a través de la cual aportar.  Durante los ultimos dos años me he enfocado en promoción (como escritor en publicaiones internacionales y otros medios) y guiar emprendedores nuevos.  Ahora, como Director del Programa de Socialatom Ventures, estaré trabajando mas con emprendedores mas experimentados.  Sin embargo, sigo sintiendo gran satisfacción viendo resultados de la primera etapa y con nuevos actores que están poniendo su pasion y esfuerzo en esta misma meta.

    4 Comments / Español, General /

  • November 16, 2012

    The Bragiel effect

    Bragiel effectWell, yesterday was a whirlwind day, but incredibly impactful thanks to a visit from Paul Bragiel, President of i/o Ventures in Silicon Valley.  Thanks to some great help from my colleagues Martin Ramos and Juan Sebastian Duque, we were able to schedule an agenda of meetings/events.   In emerging markets such as Colombia, getting startup ecosystems moving in the right direction is fraught with challenges.  Yesterday, Paul was instrumental in getting some key messages across to different audiences in his own clear and passionate style for which I’m extremely grateful.

    I got introduced to Paul by Adeo Ressi who has also had a great impact through the Founder Institute on this country’s startup ecosystem.  A few months back, I had a great chat with Paul at his offices in San Francisco and we spoke of the possibility of his stopping by Colombia.  Fortunately, everything came together and, as I mentioned, yesterday was extremely productive (and fun).

    We started the day off with a breakfast with some of key business leaders.  Paul spoke to them about startup ecosystems in other emerging markets particularly from the point of view of angel investing.  His talk was clear and filled with key suggestions for how to think about angel investing and where to start.  Coming from someone who lives in Silicon Valley, is a serial entrepreneur and investor, this was invaluable.

    Then, after meeting with a few entrepreneurs, we had an excellent lunch with key players in the public and private sector.  Catalina Ortiz, Luis Florez and Marisol Camacho from government agency Innpulsa discussed a number of issues with Paul as did Camilo Serna and Claudia Obando from the Ministry of Technology.  Carlos Castañeda and Johanna Harker from startup incubator Wayra were unable to make it, but Diana Gaviria and Tatiana Leon from incubator Connect Bogota were there.  To my right in the photo was Hernando Barreto, my colleague and partner in our new accelerator called Socialatom Ventures. In the foreground is Dan Gertzacov, Americas CEO of an amazingly innovative (and well-funded) financial services startup called Lenddo.

    Bragiel Socialatom VenturesThe lunch was amazingly dynamic and stimulating and was a great prelude to the launch of the aforementioned incubator, Socialatom Ventures.  During the launch, Paul spoke to a room full of entrepreneurs about his experiences and answered a variety of questions on what it takes to create a successful startup.  The Ministry of Technology accompanied Hernando and myself as we spoke about how to apply to Socialatom Ventures.  I was pleasantly surprised to meet excellent startups such as a polished gaming company, a Software as a service company targeting the education market and, incredibly, a startup with a new take on databases (with an amazing product and a good amount of users).

    Paul Anti AlanPaul’s next stop is Cartagena and I’m sure he’ll have a great time there especially without our filling up his schedule with activity after activity.  I (and many of my colleagues) want to see Colombia wake up from its startup slumber andstart to really create some type of impact.  That’s why, watching the audiences and participants during all of yesterday’s activities was incredibly satisfying for me as I was able to see first hand the “Bragiel effect.”  The Bragiel effect is the possibility to have the maximum number of key players in an emerging market ecosystem gain additional insights into how to move the ecosystem or become aware of the possibilities of digital innovation thanks to a credible and passionate spokesperson.

    No Comments / English, General /

  • November 5, 2012

    Colombian Startup Ecosystem mentioned in Forbes

    Colombian_StartupsI tell ya, what a difference a few years make.  About two years ago, Adeo Ressi, founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, acquiesced to opening a chapter of this startup incubator in Colombia, I was able to commence from pretty intense work in developing an ecosystem in this country.  Even though there have been some Colombian startup success stories headed by people such as Andres Barreto, Juan Diego Calle, Martin Schrimpff and Jose Velez whom I mentioned in a VentureBeat article at the end of 2011, the term “Colombian startup” has been closer to being an oxymoron than many here would like to admit, but things are slowly changing and, today, Forbes published an article about Adeo Ressi and the Founder Institute where the Colombian chapter is discussed.

    This isn’t the first time that Adeo has mentioned Colombia in the press.  After visiting Colombia for the first time and then returning to kick-off the first Founder Institute semester here, he came away from the experience with a fondness for the country.  He’s also mentioned the impact that the Founder Institute is having in Colombia in interviews with the New York Times and Businessweek, among others.

    Although I’ve mentioned several times that the Colombian ecosystem still has a ways to go when compared to other countries in the region such as Brazil, Argentina and probably also Chile and Mexico, there’s a growing group of competent people in-country laboring push Colombian entrepreneurs to new heights.  I have written a number of times about the ecosystems of Argentina and Brazil as well as new startups in Argentina such as Joincube and others such as Smowtion and Brazilian players such as Compra3 and even Pio.la from Venezuelan uber startup guy, Hernan Aracena.   Nonetheless, these countries have already created some leading startups such as MercadoLibre and Buscape, among others.  Thus, I’ve always been cognizant of the fact that the efforts in Colombia are the ones that most need visibility within the the global market.

    Starting in 2009 with an article I wrote for VentureBeat on LetMego, a startup from founders Alex Torrenegra and Leonardo Suarez, I was able to start things off. After this, VentureBeat went on to publish my article on real estate portal VivaReal not only on their site, but also in the digital edition New York Times right before that company started raising an important round of funding and explosive growth.  Later, I was able to highlight Zio Studios’ funding round in 2011.  Aside from this, when interviewed for publications such as Inc Magazine, I don’t miss the chance to promote the reasons why investors should think about Latin American startups.

    Ok. Well this has all been well and good.  Promoting the Colombian and Latin American ecosystem is important as is educating local entrepreneurs on the basics of creating a viable startup.  Nonetheless, my efforts in this respect have an egotistical motive and an attempt to solve a curious problem: myy desire to run an investment fund while living in a country that I’ve grown fond of (and gave me a beautiful wife and children), but that didn’t have a viable startup ecosystem. Hence, two years ago, I started the promotion phase (highlighting existing successes and educating potential entrepreneurs) and am now ready to start a more “meaty” phase of working full-time to develop strong startups, which I also recently wrote about.

    As I mentioned, since working as a Strategic Investment Manager at Intel Capital, my goal has been to create my own fund and fund companies which I feel can become high impact startups.  During that stint, I presented four companies in one year to the investment committee at headquarters in Santa Clara, California (quite uncommon in Latin America at the time).  This, even though I was unable to present one of the deals I was most enthused about (it was counter-intuitive at the time).  I was even reprimanded by my bosses for suggesting it (the company went on to be wildly successful).

    Probably the most rewarding experience was working with a company called JackBe that we didn’t fund during my tenure, but that I advised to change their business being a technology provider within the Pharma industry to becoming a tools company.  Since then, I’ve felt my path lay in funding and working with startups.  In order to accomplish this while living in Colombia, I’ve had to develop a step by step strategy.  I’m about midway through a strategy, which, every day gets closer to becoming reality. :)

    2 Comments / English, General /